Her Diamonds
by padfootvfd
Summary: Gale's thoughts on Katniss, Peeta, and the entire love triangle. Post-CF mild spoilers! Most-likely one-shot, but if I feel inspired I might decide to continue it


**A/N: **This is my first Hunger Games fic, and really the first thing I've written in awhile. But it begged to be written. In case you didn't pick up on it from the title, this story was inspired by the Rob Thomas song Her Diamonds. I love reviews! Praise, criticism, flames, bring it on!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the song Her Diamonds by Rob Thomas, I was just inspired by it. Also, Gale, Peeta, and Katniss (unfortunately) are not my creations. They belong to the amazingly wonderful Suzanne Collins. I just wanted to borrow them for a bit.

It's been two weeks.

Two weeks since the end of the 75th Hunger Games. Two weeks since the end of District 12. Two weeks since Katniss saw Peeta.

Two weeks that she's done nothing but cry.

I didn't realize how attached she had become to him. From what she said, her "romance" with Peeta was fabricated in the arena to win them sponsors and continued afterwards to keep the Capitol from killing the people close to her. Mostly me. So while I knew from school that Peeta was hopelessly in love with Katniss, I never even considered the idea that she could have fallen in love with him.

And so now I sit and watch her cry.

She sits by the window, staring out at the moon, and I think she hopes that wherever Peeta is, he's looking up at the same moon. Her tears pool in her eyes and then fall slowly down her cheeks. By the light of the moon they look like little diamonds falling from her eyes. Her diamonds, raining to the ground.

I was taken with her when I first saw her. Both of our fathers had been killed in a mine explosion. As the oldest child, she received a medal of honor for her father, just like me. She was twelve, but even then she was striking. After that, I started noticing her at school. I watched her grow thinner and thinner as her family had less and less to eat. Then one day, she started gaining weight again. That was around the same time that Peeta Mellark came to school with a black eye. It was a few months later that I ran into her in the woods. She was examining my snares. We began a casual hunting relationship, which evolved into a close friendship. The more I got to know her, the more I realized what an amazing person she was.

Then I fell in love with her.

I was going to tell her, the day of the reaping. I started to. But it didn't quite work. And then she volunteered for Prim. Only Katniss would ever do that. But I knew it meant I was going to lose her.

And I did lose her. Just not the way I had anticipated. I lost her to Peeta.

So now I sit, every night, and watch those precious diamonds fall to the floor, knowing there's nothing I can do to help her.

She has a little pearl, the one Peeta found for her in the arena, that she holds in her hands, keeping it close. She talks to it sometimes in quiet whispers, and I know in her mind she's talking to Peeta.

During the day she sleeps. She refuses to see Haymitch, her mentor. Not that I blame her. He used her and Peeta in his little game, and hurt them both, maybe beyond repair.

And so I count her diamonds.

Sometimes she lies on the bed, and her diamonds run down her face and soak the pillow. She only does this if she knows I'm watching, thinking she can hide her tears from me. But I can see her shoulders move with each gentle sob.

I know from Haymitch (and from watching the Games) that she and Peeta had grown accustomed to sleeping together. Not anything sexual, just being with each other.

One night, as she lays in bed, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs for her absent husband (fiancé. The story about the toasting was just that, a story.) I can't help it. I leave my usual place in the doorframe and climb into bed with her, wrapping my arms around her thin body. She ignores me at first, but then she rolls over, burying her face in my chest. Her diamonds soak my shirt now, but I don't mind. Seeing her like this, seeing my strong, beautiful, fearless Katniss so utterly broken, I can't help it. Tears well up in my eyes and roll slowly down my cheeks, dripping into her dark hair.

I see her like this and I know—I have to bring Peeta back to her.

I can see everything very clearly now. I'm the night. Cold and unfeeling. Peeta is her daylight. The blonde merchant's son is everything right and good. He's everything she deserves.

I could live a hundred lifetimes and never deserve her.

I need to find her daylight.

I don't really know what I'm doing here. I never really know what I'm doing. Only that she needs to know she's not alone. I could try to comfort her, but I know her better than that. There's nothing I can say.

She sits up, rubbing her eyes. The moonlight shines off her hair, making her even more radiant. Without saying a word, she goes to sit on the windowsill and stare out at the moon, rolling her beautiful little pearl between her fingers. Silently, I get up and leave the room, but not without one last glance back. Her diamonds are falling faster now, and it takes all my strength to leave her. But I can't help her now, so I leave.

I can't take her diamonds falling down.


End file.
